Thank you to everyone who attended our inaugural community event at the Kennel Boxing Gym on May 16! We had seven youth rowers from Oakland Strokes Rowing Club and seven youth boxers from the Kennel Boxing Gym in attendance. The athletes were able to try out each others sports through fun rowing and boxing drills in which everyone was involved. Not only were youth boxers and rowers able to learn about the amazing ways that they each strive to be champions, they were also able to bond with each other with a newfound appreciation for each others sports. This would not have been possible without the presence of all the people who came to support these athletic communities!

Over the past year, I have been working on this initiative Row For Good. Through this program, I aim to connect the communities and athletes of two sports, rowing and boxing. Both of these sports are defined by athletes who focus on discipline and hard work in their quest to achieve their goals. My experiences with both rowing and boxing have transformed me to be the person I am today, both physically and mentally. In different but complementary ways, they made me realize that I am capable of achieving so much more than I believed was possible.

I have been part of the Oakland Strokes rowing program since 2022. Rowing is an intense sport with practices year round, 6 days a week, consisting of high intensity technique and speed work on rowing machines (ergs), endurance training, weight training, and of course, rowing time on the Oakland estuary on 2, 4 and 8 person boats (shells). I've raced throughout throughout the Bay Area, in Sacramento and San Diego. I've also had the honor of competing at the Youth National Championships in Sarasota, Florida. Rowing pushes me to my limit every day, and yet every day I come back for more knowing that I have what it takes to be even greater than yesterday.

My involvement with the Kennel Boxing Gym in San Leandro began in the summer of 2024, with my first summer job. My initial duties included cleaning toilets, scrubbing bathrooms, and building out boxing rings and gym equipment. I spent the following summer handling front of house duties, membership record maintenance, and bookkeeping. I also took up boxing, engaging in the strenuous workouts and sparring sessions(and learned how it feels to take a punch to the face, and how to weave to avoid letting that happen again!).

During my many hours at the gym, I gained an endless admiration for the dedication of the boxers in their quest to be great. I also learned that many of these boxers live paycheck to paycheck and are limited by financial resources that can jeopardize their ability to access equipment and training. Boxing, for many, is not only an outlet and a path to fitness, but also serves as a path to a potential career as a boxer and upward mobility. This same struggle is felt by the Kennel's youth Competitive Team program, where young people participate to have a place to go after school to achieve the discipline and personal accomplishment that I get through rowing every day, but face financial barriers to do so. As the grandson of immigrants who had so many doors closed to them due to discrimination, language barriers and the high cost of access, I have a personal goal to try to remove as many of these boundaries for others that I can.

This is where Row for Good comes in. Through the amazing community of Oakland Strokes, I want to extend youth boxers in the San Leandro/Oakland community at the Kennel Boxing Gym the opportunity to discover our amazing sport of rowing, and also to raise money to ensure that their athletic journeys are not restrained by their financial means. Both of these communities mean the world to me, and by joining them together in this manner, I know that we can open gateways for underprivileged youth to pursue their athletic dreams and be able to strive for greatness every day without worrying about their family's financial situation.

Currently, my goal is to raise $5,000 dollars to provide equipment and scholarships for prospective and existing athletes in the Oakland area to pursue boxing. $20 will buy a boxer hand/wrist protection wraps, $50 covers gloves, $70 covers headgear. $100 covers training costs for a month, $1200 covers training for a year. Truly, any amount will be meaningful and impactful, and greatly appreciated. No amount is too small.

Thank you for your time and consideration!